One week ago today, my honey and I completed a 7 day Mexican Rivera cruise on Princess Cruises (yes same one as on the "Love Boat" TV show). We had a really wonderful time and we'd love to go on another cruise.

Anyway... Not all cruise lines offer self-service laundry facilities for their guests, but Princess does. There's one located on each deck with staterooms and at lease on this ship, the equipment is all Maytag. We packed enough that we didn't need to use it, but it's nice to know it's there if anyone needs it!

Disclaimer: I posted this in Imperial because the machines look old enough to qualify. Robert: please move to Deluxe of you feel this post should be there instead.

Photo #1 The entry door.

#2. Inside, each is located between the hallways on each side of the ship. 4 washers, 4 dryers and 4 irons / ironing boards, detergent and token vending machines.

#3. Looks like real Maytag equipment, not rebadged Whirlpools.

#4. Tub shot - definitely Maytag!

#5. The cost. As everything is cash-less onboard, you used your "cruise card" to get tokens and it's charged to your shipboard account.

Interesting. I was just Bit$ing a few days ago because none of the cruise ships we have been on had self-service laundry. Usually its not a problem but it could be handy. We are getting ready to do a 9day cruise and i wished they offered self-service because we would not have to pack as much. This will be the longest cruise we have ever been on and our bags are usually pretty full even with careful packing and planning.

I wholeheartedly agree with your assessment of modern cruise ships. REAL liners were the best, ships like the RMS Queen Mary, QE2, and the SS United States(which I might add still holds the Blue Riband).

Dubious seaworthiness, indeed. Not only with regard to rough seas, but also with reliability. There were rarely ever failures on ships that used steam turbines or non electronic diesel-electric. Azimuth pods are a failure waiting to happen, long live shafts and rudders!

incompetent crew are more apt to cause failure than azimuth pods. I.E. the Costa Concordia.

Second to that, you at more danger of becoming ill on a cruise than subject to a severe storm, and last month, a cruise ship sailed right through one without incident because the multiple azimuth pods with trim fins do in fact stabilize the vessel. They assist the main prop system driven by Wartzilla diesel engines in fact.
In order to make steam from boilers, you either need coal on board, oil, which is no different than diesel, or an atomic reactor.

You said yourself that the azimuth pods and fins do the stabilizing, I ask, what happens when those fail? You have a top-heavy, un-maneuverable ship at the mercy of rough seas. With older ships that were designed for the usually rough conditions of the north Atlantic that would pose less issue, as the rudder was usually fail safe with multiple redundant methods to operate it. Even if the rudder was lost, these liners were also built to withstand massive rogue waves almost as big as the ship itself without sustaining structural damage.

I do agree about incompetent crew, however. Every time there is a rail accident all everyone can do is scream about why positive train braking was never installed. The massive amount of rail accidents since the turn of the century in my personal opinion are all down to crew error. We are on the way to having twice as many accidents in this century as the previous. We have what should be, by all accounts safer rail equipment than ever before but more accidents. The answer has to be the crew. Also for positive train braking to be installed it has to be done by the freight companies who own the track not Amtrak who operate passenger service, and they have no interest in doing as such. Amtrak really needs to be renegotiated and rechartered.

TL washers aboard the ship-If its really wavy seas the ship is sailing on-I would be concerned about the water staying in the washer!I hear too many BAD things about cruising-and the high costs-it discourages me from going on one.And is the ship really being used as a means of transit to take you to where you really want to go-seems like most of those cruises are just rides on the ships for folks that like to sail on them.and--the ship pictured looks more like a BARGE than a beautiful ship-sleek,streamlined and such.Also for powering ships-gas turbines are starting to come into play.Old wide body engines that have too many hours for aircraft propulsion end up as stationary genset engines,natural gas pumping,and powering Navy or other ships.After all on those twin rotor engines the second rotor could turn a generator,ship reduction gear,etc just as easy as an aircraft propulsion fan.For a large widebody engine-to turn that 8' plus dia fan at 4000 rpm takes about 50,000Hp.This could easily run a ship in these cases.So the gas turbines may slowly take over diesels that replaced boilers fueled by oil or coal.

If we ever do go on a cruise, it will be on one of the Cunard liners like the QM2 or Victoria. My problem is that I don't like to fly and have nightmares every time I start considering a trip that involves a jet ride.

It was discontinued. You could cruise one way by ship and return on the Concorde, just $1995 more for the Concorde.

“We are delighted to again offer travelers the opportunity to combine QE2 and Concorde – two of the world’s greatest travel experiences. What could be better than cruising to Europe at a leisurely pace in one direction and then returning by supersonic jet.”

Askolover, the QM2 is the only ship in the Cunard fleet built to proper seaworthiness standards. The modern-day Queen Elizabeth and Queen Victoria are just standard off-the-shelf cruise sheds...

Personally, I think that the way forward is COSAG, like the old County-class guided missile destroyers. Fuel it on CNG (MUCH cleaner than heavy fuel oil), use the heat off the gas turbine to drive a recovery turbine or else preheat feedwater for the boilers. You could use smaller gas turbines, steam turbogenerators or even hydrogen fuel cells for power.

With all respect to the SS United States, France was nearly as fast and a lot prettier. I wish that someone had saved her from Alang beach - supposedly an Arab tried to buy her for use as a floating hotel, but the Norwegians had cut a deal with the scrappers that absolutely excluded any possibility of its resale. Time for a new ocean liner to take that Blue Riband back...

I cruised on the QE2 in 1987 from Southampton to New York in deepest December--it was quite something with the pool in the bowels of the ship having waves equal in amplitude to what was going on in the ocean outside the ship. It was really a fun experience--one stayed in for the entire trip and there were marathon Trivial Pursuit games with mixed US and UK card decks so no one really had an advantage.